Albright blasts Taliban for stance on women By: David S. Cloud

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, November 19, 1997

1997-11-19 04:00:00 PDT AFGHANISTAN; UNITED STATES; PAKISTAN -- NASIR BAGH, Pakistan - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has intensified U.S. criticism of the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist militia that controls much of Afghanistan, deploring their "despicable treatment of women and their lack of respect for human rights."

Visiting a refugee camp of mud huts and tattered tents near the Afghan border, Albright listened Tuesday as schoolgirls and their teachers recounted, sometimes in harrowing detail, their flight from the Taliban and the factional fighting that has devastated Afghanistan since Soviet troops withdrew in 1989.

Albright has made support for women's rights around the world a priority.

Elementary school in Oakland opens time capsule from 1927San Francisco Chronicle

Brides of March walk through San FranciscoSan Francisco Chronicle

WildCare rescues Western scrub jay from rodent glue trapWildCare

The Regulars: The CarpenterJessica Christian

Massive fire in San Francisco's North BeachDavid Essling

"I will do everything I can to help your country," a clearly moved Albright told the group at a brief meeting in a dirt-floored classroom. "I can visit you again, but in Afghanistan, where you will live as full equals. . . . We really are all sisters."

More than 2 million Afghans live in squalor in Pakistan and Iran, the largest concentration of refugees in the world, according to the United Nations.

Earlier, Albright met with Pakistani officials in Islamabad, where she discussed, among other topics, the killing of four U.S. oil company workers in Karachi last week. Albright also encouraged the Pakistani government to use its influence to get the Taliban to negotiate with opponents. Albright was the first secretary of State to visit South Asia in 14 years.

The Taliban captured the Afghan capital of Kabul last year, along with three-quarters of the country. Led by fundamentalist students, the Taliban quickly imposed an extreme form of Islamic rule, closing schools for girls and denying women medical treatment and the right to work.&lt;